WHO WROTE THE BIBLICAL TRUTH ABOUT…? [M, 10-9-23]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections On Faith & Life For The Years Of Winter: WHO WROTE THE BIBLICAL TRUTH ABOUT…? [M, 10-9-23]

 

Did Paul write Hebrews, the book in the Bible [New Testament] by that name? Yes, according to the Jeopardy TV show. No, according to most Biblical scholars.

Don’t we have enough Bible controversies without Ken Jennings creating yet another instance of authorship brouhaha? Of course, Ken was not the writer of the question, but he is the face of Jeopardy these days, so he gets the blame.

It was the Final Jeopardy question [answer, in Jeopardy’s backward approach] in The Tournament of Champions: “Paul’s Letter to Them is the New Testament Epistle with the Most Old Testament Quotations.”

Amy Schneider said “What is Hebrews?” Sam Buttrey said “What is Romans?” Andrew He said “What is Philippians?” Jennings declared that Schneider was correct.

It’s sort of a common-sense sounding question. “Hebrews” sounds more Old Testamenty than Romans or Philippians. And I assume that it must have more OT quotes, by count, than Romans or Philippians, although I have not done such a count myself. The controversy could have been avoided if the Jeopardyians had just said “The letter to them” instead of “Paul’s letter to them.” We know it’s a letter. We know it has a lot of OT quotes. We don’t know that Paul wrote it.

Even when I was a Bible scholar, I didn’t think it was very important just who wrote one book or another. The issue for me was never who wrote it but what it said.

Of course, sometimes knowing authorship can help with interpretation. Since we know what Paul thought about potlucks from what he wrote in letters that are surely his, if the author of III Thesalossiphilipans wrote something vague about potlucks, but it sounds like what Paul wrote, then it’s likely that we can still potluck in the church and know it’s an ecclesiastical activity that is sanctioned by apostolic tradition.

It’s what the author says about potlucks, though, that is important. As daughter Katie replied when her Roman Catholic husband-to-be asked her what was necessary to be a Methodist, she said, “You have to believe in God and have a 9x13 pan.”

The Bible says so. Maybe Paul. If he wrote Hebrews…

John Robert McFarland